In Greek mythology, Alcyone or Alkyone and Ceyx were a wife and husband who incurred the wrath of the god Zeus.
Mythology
Alcyone was the daughter of King Aeolus of Aeolia, either by Enarete or Aegiale. She was a Thessalian princess and later queen of Trachis. Ceyx was the son of Eosphorus. Alcyone and Ceyx married and were very happy together in Trachis. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's account, they often sacrilegiously called each other "Zeus" and "Hera". This angered Zeus, so while Ceyx was at sea, the god threw a thunderbolt at his ship. Soon after, Morpheus, the god of dreams, disguised as Ceyx, appeared to Alcyone as an apparition to tell her of his fate, and she threw herself into the sea in her grief. Out of compassion, the gods changed them both into common kingfishers, or "halcyon birds", named after her. Ovid and Hyginus both also recount the metamorphosis of the pair in and after Ceyx's loss in a terrible storm, though they both omit Ceyx and Alcyone calling each other Zeus and Hera as a reason for it. On the contrary, it is mentioned that being unaware of Ceyx's death in the shipwreck, Alcyone continued to pray at the altar of Hera for his safe return. Ovid also adds the detail of her seeing his body washed up onshore before her attempted suicide. The myth is also briefly referred to by Virgil, again without reference to Zeus's anger.
Ovid and Hyginus both also make the metamorphosis the origin of the etymology for "", the seven days in winter when storms never occur. They state that these were originally the 14 days each year during which Alcyone laid her eggs and made her nest on the beach and during which her father Aeolus, god of the winds, restrained the winds and calmed the waves so she could do so in safety. Aeolus controls the wind and the bird couple can nurture their young nestlings. The phrase has since come to refer to any peaceful time. Its proper meaning, however, is that of a lucky break, or a bright interval set in the midst of adversity; just as the days of calm and mild weather are set in the height of winter for the sake of the kingfishers' egglaying.
Interpretation
The English poetRobert Graves, in his The Greek Myths, explained the origin of Alcyone's myth as follows: Although one of the mythological Pleiades was indeed called Alcyone, Graves does not cite any sources to support his claim that she was their leader - or even to support the idea that they had a leader. This claim is also made in Graves's The White Goddess, but again no quotations from myths or scholiasts are given to support it.
Gallery
Legacy
Various kinds of kingfishers are named after the couple, in reference to the metamorphosis myth:
Their story is the basis for the opera Alcyone by the French composer Marin Marais and the cantata Alcyone by Maurice Ravel
A collection of Canada's celebrated nature poet, Archibald Lampman, Alcyone, his final set of poetry published posthumously in 1899, highlights both Lampman's apocalyptic and utopian visions of the future.
TS Eliot draws from this myth in The Dry Salvages: "And the ragged rock in the restless waters,/Waves wash over it, fogs conceal it;/On a halcyon day it is merely a monument,/In navigable weather it is always a seamark/To lay a course by: but in the sombre season/Or the sudden fury, is what it always was."
Rick Riordan's The Demigod Files had a part called "The Diary of Luke Castellan" which mentions a similar character named Halcyon Green who is the son of Apollo and is currently under "house arrest" for revealing to a woman her fate.
